Platypuschow I'm not a fan of the disaster genre, they're always the same. Introduction of charactersExpert warns people of imminent disasterPowers that be ignore expertDisaster happensThen either a lot of running and talking about what is happening until it ends or some pseudo science to fix itThis is no different and what's strange is just how little of the film the disaster takes up.Starring Robert Forster, Rock Hudson and Mia Farrow this is more like a soap opera where an avalanche just so happens to take place.Swinging 70's, polystyrene snow and merciless deaths this has it's merits but certainly pales in comparison to the better films within this sub genre.The Good:Cast do a decent jobThe Bad:PredictibleSoap opera likeSFX are poor even for its timeThings I Learnt From This Movie:Unless your name ends in Campbell don't be a Bruce, you are no worthyDeath by polstyrene looks as painful as it sounds

tarwaterthomas Well do I remember this disaster movie classic from the 1970s, brought to one and all by Roger Corman and his New World Pictures outfit' ol' Rog was rather late to the party. Anyhoo, this fractured flicker takes place in the Colorado Rocky Mountains (where this movie was shot, but fortunately recovered). Rock Hudson plays a bazillionaire businessman who owns a ritzy mountainside hotel where a sports competition is taking place. We're talking ice-skating, folks. Mia Farrow plays his former wife whom he's trying to woo once again. Then there's Robert Forster, who's an environmentally-conscious forest ranger and he's trying to alert Rock and company about an avalanche that will happen unless somebody does something. There are some cannon shots that loosens the snow, but the titular disaster happens when an airplane smacks into a snowy peak. And away we go. The surprisingly good visual effects were accomplished by an uncredited Gene Warren (who with Tim Barr and Wah Chang) snared an Oscar for Best Special Effects on THE TIME MACHINE (1960). This movie is finally available on DVD, thanks to Olive Films. Next year marks AVALANCHE's 40th anniversary. Check it out. And look for the well-written novelization of the movie; the tie-in novel was written by Robert Weverka and issued by Bantam Books. That's all. One more thing. I promise. The avalanche sequence was borrowed by American International for METEOR (1979) where an avalanche covers a Swiss ski resort thanks to a fragment of the big rock.

Rruffin83 I gave it a 3 because of Robert Forster's acting. Mia Farrow was horrible and Rock Hudson was annoyingly bad. The director must have given them one take per scene, Forster nailed every one and the stars missed big time. The snow that someone kept throwing across the windows every 2 seconds was hilarious. Do chunks of snow really bounce off you? lol

nogimmicks Fun and entertaining low-budget disaster epic produced by the king of low-budget, Roger Corman (His style: Light, and get away...). Obviously made on the heels of disaster blockbusters like The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and Earthquake, Avalanche is a pretty standard disaster film -- it gathers a large number of broadly portrayed characters to a location, then proceeds to put them into deadly peril. But since this is Corman, we don't have the big-name cast here -- the biggest name is Rock Hudson, not exactly Heston or Newman, but you work with what you got. The special effects are cheap but effective -- they may be double exposures, stock footage, and Styrofoam blocks but the editing is tight and the shots are generally well composed. The acting is middle of the road, TV melodrama kinda stuff, but wholly serviceable for the genre. Plus, at about 90 minutes, it doesn't ever drag on -- Corman's efficiency at work. And watch for a scene involving a pot of soup which is downright hilarious.This film really deserves a 6, but it made me smile, and was original enough (there's not that many disaster films out there about avalanches, after all!) for me to grant that extra point. If you like disaster films, then check out Avalanche.